School Health Program
In the first half of 2022, the health unit worked collaboratively with local school boards, schools, and school communities to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools. As the new school year approached in the fall of 2022, we continued to focus on COVID-19 prevention, as well as on partnerships to address indirect impacts of the pandemic and to gradually resume some routine public health programming for schools.
The School Health Program offered elementary and secondary schools an outreach visit by a public health nurse, which was accepted by approximately 80% of schools. During these visits the most common health topic identified by schools to address was mental health. Other common topics were nutrition/healthy eating, physical activity, and vaping. Many schools indicated plans to register for Ontario Physical and Health Education Association Healthy Schools Certification as a means of comprehensively addressing these and other important health topics. Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, public health nurses and registered dietitians have worked in partnership with other health unit programs, school boards/schools, and community partners to plan and implement school-based initiatives and services.
Substance Use and Injury Prevention Program
In 2022, there were 136 opioid related deaths in Simcoe Muskoka, significantly higher than the 89 opioid related deaths in 2019. In response to the ongoing regional opioid crisis, the heath unit continued to provide needle exchange program and naloxone distribution support and services for community partnerships. The health unit onboarded two new needle exchange and six new naloxone distribution program partners and provided training and education for all. During the year, 2924 naloxone kits were distributed by naloxone distribution partnerships and 9,122 needle exchange program clients were provided services.
The health unit led the development of the Simcoe Muskoka Opioid Strategy Final Report, Simcoe Muskoka Opioid Strategy (SMOS) A Report on Actions (2018-2021) released in August 2022. This public report provided a summary of the goals and actions completed as part of the SMOS three-year action plan. In the Fall of 2022, the health unit lead the collaboration of regional community partners in the refresh planning for the Simcoe Muskoka Opioid Strategy. In partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association Simcoe County Branch, the health unit continued to provide leadership and support while awaiting Health Canada and Ministry of Health approval of the Consumption and Treatment Site (CTS) applications for the Barrie CTS location at 11 Innisfil St. On Sept 9, 2022, exemption to section 56.1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act was granted for the Barrie CTS site. A CTS application status update request was made by both the health unit and CMHA SCB to the Ministry of Health in a letter sent on Dec 7, 2022.
In the spring of 2022, the Substance Use and Injury Prevention Program began repatriation of the re-deployed public health nurses and started a gradual recovery of re-building knowledge and re-engaging community partnerships within the program areas of Alcohol, Cannabis, Prevention of Substance Use, Aging and Wellness, and Suicide Prevention and Life Promotion.
Healthy Growth and Development Program
During 2022, the program focused supports on infant feeding. In particular, online breastfeeding support groups were established and offered twice a week to residents across Simcoe-Muskoka. In collaboration with the Barrie and Community Family Health Team Prenatal Well Baby Clinic, support continued for the lactation clinic once a week to provide clinical assessment and intervention for breastfeeding families. Online prenatal classes were offered by the health unit as well in 2022, as did support to our prenatal families through public health nurse participation in the Canadian Prenatal Nutrition Programs, virtually.
Healthy Babies Healthy Children (HBHC) Program
From January to April 2022, most HBHC staff were redeployed to our COVID-19 response, resulting in a significant reduction in HBHC services and creating a waitlist of clients consenting to home visiting support. The program gradually resumed home visiting service over several months while focusing on staff re-orientation to HBHC program components and processes. HBHC staff successfully lowered the waitlist by the end of December. Significant time was spent on planning for re-engaging with key partners such as local hospitals and modifying the HBHC service delivery model, with the goal of continued reduction in the waitlist and a full staffing complement working at optimal levels of service delivery in 2023.
Chronic Disease Prevention Program
All Chronic Disease Prevention (CDP) Program staff were redeployed at various times to the COVID-19 pandemic work, and all returned to the program by June 2022. CDP team members reached out to key community partners to re-establish relationships to support future work together. To help inform CDP work planning, staff also sought to learn more from community partners about priority issues and the impact of the pandemic related to healthy eating, household food insecurity, physical activity, and the built environment. Additionally in 2022, the program conducted the Ontario Nutritious Food Basket Survey in Simcoe and Muskoka to gain critical data to support advocacy and actions targeted at reducing household food insecurity. The program supported the Simcoe County Food Council in developing provincial and municipal election toolkits to inform candidates, partners, and the public about critical community issues. CDP resumed active school travel planning work with municipalities, school boards and local schools. This involved reinstating the Simcoe Muskoka On the Move Steering Committee while recruiting new members and resuming the On the Move Initiative with selected local schools. CDP was also involved with providing feedback on municipal plans to address healthy community design related to the built environment and re-established involvement with relevant municipal committees of council.